A Maoist zonal Commander carrying a bounty of ₹50,000 on his head was killed in an encounter with Bihar STF and Begusarai police late on Wednesday, police said.
The deceased has been identified as Dayanand Malakar, secretary of the north-Bihar Central Zonal Committee of the outlawed CPI-Maoist. Two of his associates were arrested, they said.
ADG (Operation) Kundan Krishnan confirmed the incident and said one 5.56 MM INSAS rifle, a country-made pistol, 25 live cartridges and 15 spent cartridges from the spot. “More than 16 cases of murder, explosives act and Arms Act, have been registered against Dayanand in Begusarai, Khagaria and Muzaffarpur districts,” said Krishnan.
The encounter took place in Nonpur village of Teghra police station area of Begusarai.
Malakar known as Chhotu alias Daman alias Kulvir alias Akash alias Sanesh alias Yogendra is said to be Madhya Zonal commander of North Bihar.
Begusarai SP Manish said that the STF had received information about Dayanand Malakar, who along with his associates was present in his village and planned to carry out a major operation.
Based on the information, the STF and Begusarai police jointly reached the spot and cordoned off the area and tried to arrest him. According to the police, seeing himself surrounded, the Maoist suddenly started firing. After this, the STF and the police retaliated. More than two dozen rounds were fired from both sides. Dayanand died on the spot during the exchange of fire while one of his associates was caught from the spot.
Begusarai SP himself arrived at the spot with the FSL team and monitored the situation.
Earlier on Sunday, three senior Maoist leaders, two of whom were carrying rewards of ₹3 lakh each, surrendered before Bihar Director General of Police (DGP) Vinay Kumar in Munger district on Sunday. Two self-styled zonal commanders, Narayan Kora and Bahadur Kora, each carrying a bounty of ₹3 lakh, The three surrendered Maoists handed over two INSAS rifles, self-loading rifles (SLRs), around 500 rounds of ammunition and 10 walkie-talkies to the police.
